1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a terminating and connecting device for electrical connection of an electrical device, especially a solar module, with a housing which has a housing lower part and a housing upper part, with at least one contact spring for electrical contacting of at least one terminal lead coming from the electrical device, with at least one terminal element located in the housing for connecting at least one cable and with at least one metal part via which the terminal lead contacted by the contact spring can be connected to a cable connected by the terminal element in an electrical conductive manner, the housing having at least one opening for inserting the cable, the contact spring, the terminal element and the metal part being assigned to the housing lower part and there being at least one actuating element on the housing upper part, and the contact spring, when the housing upper part is placed or pressed onto the housing lower part, is movable out of a first position in which the contact spring does not make contact with the terminal lead into a second position in which the terminal lead is contacted by the contact spring.
2. Description of Related Art
To connect an electrical device to a cable or to connect a cable to an electrical device, a terminating and connecting device is often used. The terminating and connecting device which is also often called a junction box is attached with its housing to one side of the device, the terminal lead or terminal leads of the device being routed through the housing wall of the device on this side. Within the junction box, there is a terminal to which, on the one hand, the terminal leads of the device, and on the other hand, the cores of the cable inserted into the housing through the openings can be connected, and thus, they can be electrically connected to one another.
Even if these terminating and connecting devices can be used in a plurality of electrical devices, for example, as a motor terminal box or as a transformer terminal box, a solar module is described below as a preferred example for an electrical device, in which the junction box is attached on the back of the solar module facing away from the sun side, without the invention being limited thereto.
In recent years, photovoltaic solar modules have been increasingly used to produce electrical current from sunlight. These solar modules, which are often also called solar panels, are formed of a plurality of individual solar cells which lie next to one another, are located between a common front cover layer and a common back cover layer and are wired to one another. In order to achieve higher voltages, generally several solar modules are connected in series. For this reason, a junction box is attached on the back of each solar module facing away from the sun side. The terminal leads coming from the solar cells of the solar module are connected in an electrically conductive manner in the junction box to corresponding terminal elements which are connected to the terminal elements for the external cables. The electrical connection to the terminal elements of the junction box of the terminal leads which come from the solar module and which are generally flat ribbons is generally produced manually by soldering or using screws.
The effort in the mounting of the known junction boxes on the solar modules is relatively high due to the manual connecting (soldering or screws) of the terminal leads to the terminal elements provided in the junction box. German Patent Application DE 10 2005 025 632 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 7,444,743 disclose a junction box in which the mounting of the junction box on a solar module and the production of the junction box are to be simplified. In the known junction box, which has a pot-shaped housing lower part and a housing cover, in the interior of the housing lower part, there are several pressed screens via which the first terminal elements for connecting the terminal leads coming from the solar module are electrically connected to the second terminal elements for connecting the cables. While the first terminal elements each have a clamp spring, the second terminal elements are made as crimp terminals for connecting the cable.
The connection of a terminal lead (flat ribbon) of the solar module to a section of the pressed screen takes place by a terminal lead which has been inserted into the housing through an opening being wrapped around a terminal web formed on the pressed screen and then clamped tight by slipping on the clamp springs. In this junction box the electrical terminal of the terminal leads of the solar module is therefore connected with a relatively high manual effort.
German Patent Application DE 103 58 140 B4 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 7,737,355 disclose a junction box for a solar cell module which also has a pot-shaped housing lower part and a housing cover. This junction box has a clamping spring with two spring legs which act opposite one another and between which the flat ribbon which is to be connected is inserted. In order to avoid kinking of the flat ribbon when inserted into the junction box, underneath the clamp spring there is a guide means with an insertion funnel within which the flat ribbon is guided in the transverse direction with little play. However, the problem here is that the clamp spring must be opened by the flat ribbon when it is inserted in order to travel into the clamping site between the two spring legs.
German Patent Application DE 10 2007 006 433 A1 discloses an initially described junction box with a two-part housing in which both the terminal element for the terminal lead and also the terminal element for the cable are made as clamp springs. Each of the clamp springs have a clamping leg and are connected to one another via an essentially U-shaped metal part. The clamp springs for connecting the terminal lead of the solar module can be pivoted out of a first position in which a terminal lead can be inserted between the clamping leg and a contact section of the metal part into a second position in which the terminal lead is contacted by clamping between the clamping leg and the contact section of the metal part. The production of the electrical connection between the terminal lead and a cable is simplified in that on the hood-shaped housing upper part there is an actuating element which projects to the inside and which pivots the clamp spring out of the first position into the second position when the housing upper part is seated completely on the housing lower part so that a terminal lead which has been inserted between the clamping leg of the clamp spring and the contact section of the metal part is automatically contacted and thus manual actuating of the clamp spring is not necessary.
The known junction box is mounted on the solar module such that first the cables are connected to the corresponding clamp springs, then the housing upper part is partially seated on the housing lower part, then the housing which has been pre-mounted in this way is seated on the solar module so that the terminal leads of the solar module which stand vertically upwards as much as possible are inserted through two openings in the housing lower part each between the clamping legs of an opened clamp spring and the contact section of a metal part, and finally the housing upper part is pressed in the direction of the housing lower part, as a result of which the two clamp springs are pivoted such that the terminal leads are automatically contacted.
Difficulties can arise in the known junction box when the terminal leads do not essentially project vertically from the solar module or when the junction box is not positioned accurately enough since it can happen that the terminal leads do not travel through the openings in the housing lower part between the clamping leg of the opened clamp springs and the contact section of the metal parts.